But where there is light, there is shadow

INTRODUCTION TO BOOK 3
The Book of the Spiritual Man 1-11 12-22 22-33 34- 44 45-55
The third book of the Sutras is the Book of Spiritual Powers. Inconsidering these spiritual powers, two things must be understood andkept in memory. The first of these is this: These spiritual powers canonly be gained when the development described in the first and secondbooks has been measurably attained; when the Commandments havebeen kept, the Rules faithfully followed, and the experiences which aredescribed have been passed through. For only after this is the spiritualman so far grown, so far disentangled from the psychical bandagesand veils which have confined and blinded him, that he can use hisproper powers and faculties. For this is the secret of all spiritualpowers: they are in no sense an abnormal or supernatural overgrowthupon the material man, but are rather the powers and faculties inherentin the spiritual man, entirely natural to him, and coming naturally intoactivity, as the spiritual man is disentangled and liberated frompsychical bondage, through keeping the Commandments and Rulesalready set forth.As the personal man is the limitation and inversion of the spiritualman, all his faculties and powers are inversions of the powers of thespiritual man. In a single phrase, his self seeking is the inversion of theSelf-seeking which is the very being of the spiritual man: the ceaselesssearch after the divine and august Self of all beings. This inversion iscorrected by keeping the Commandments and Rules, and gradually,as the inversion is overcome, the spiritual man is extricated, andcomes into possession and free exercise of his powers. The spiritualpowers, therefore, are the powers of the grown and liberated spiritualman. They can only be developed and used as the spiritual man growsand attains liberation through obedience. This is the first thing to bekept in mind, in all that is said of spiritual powers in the third andfourth books of the Sutras. The second thing to be understood andkept in mind is this:Just as our modern sages have discerned and taught that all matter isultimately one and eternal, definitely related throughout the wholewide universe; just as they have discerned and taught that all force isone and eternal, so coordinated throughout the whole universe thatwhatever affects any atom measurably affects the whole boundlessrealm of matter and force, to the most distant star or nebula on thedim confines of space; so the ancient sages had discerned and taughtthat all consciousness is one, immortal, indivisible, infinite; so finelycorrelated and continuous that whatever is perceived by anyconsciousness is, whether actually or potentially, within the reach ofall consciousness, and therefore within the reach of any consciousness.This has been well expressed by saying that all souls are fundamentallyone with the Oversoul; that the Son of God, and all Sons of God, arefundamentally one with the Father. When the consciousness is clearedof psychic bonds and veils, when the spiritual man is able to stand, tosee, then this superb law comes into effect: whatever is within theknowledge of any consciousness, and this includes the whole infiniteuniverse, is within his reach, and may, if he wills, be made a part of hisconsciousness. This he may attain through his fundamental unity withthe Oversoul, by raising himself toward the consciousness above him,and drawing on its resources. The Son, if he would work miracles,whether of perception or of action, must come often into the presenceof the Father. This is the birthright of the spiritual man; through it hecomes into possession of his splendid and immortal powers. Let it beclearly kept in mind that what is here to be related of the spiritual man,and his exalted powers, must in no wise be detached from what hasgone before. The being, the very inception, of the spiritual mandepends on the purification and moral attainment already detailed, andcan in no wise dispense with these or curtail them.Let no one imagine that the true life, the true powers of the spiritualman, can be attained by any way except the hard way of sacrifice, oftrial, of renunciation, of selfless self-conquest and genuine devotion tothe weal of all others. Only thus can the golden gates be reached andentered. Only thus can we attain to that pure world wherein thespiritual man lives, and moves, and has his being. Nothing impure,nothing unholy can ever cross that threshold, least of all impuremotives or self seeking desires. These must be burnt away before anentrance to that world can be gained.But where there is light, there is shadow; and the lofty light of the soulcasts upon the clouds of the mid-world the shadow of the spiritualman and of his powers; the bastard vesture and the bastard powers ofpsychism are easily attained; yet, even when attained, they are adelusion, the very essence of unreality.Therefore ponder well the earlier rules, and lay a firm foundation ofcourage, sacrifice, selflessness, holiness.
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